Even in Paris, they re so chic that they have sold out a week before Christmas - and they come from Khayelitsha, outside Cape Town. They re light bulbs made by a group of 16 HIV-positive women, who use the money they earn from the venture to buy antiretroviral drugs. The colourful, limited-edition designer bulbs have s
Lebo Mofokeng, 22, a loveLife call centre counsellor based at our head office in Rosebank, Johannesburg, attended the 13th International Aids Conference in Nairobi, Kenya two months ago - and became a wiser person. He shares his experience with us Kenyans are warm and compassionate people - qualities many of us lack. T
When we re growing up and our hormones start raging, masturbation can be a great way of releasing all that sexual pressure and getting to know our bodies a little better. It s also the safest sex you can ever have - you can t get pregnant, infected with HIV/Aids or an STI, and you don t have to worry about a condom.
Rubbers, effies, raincoats, gloves... call them what you like; condoms are an important survival tool in today s world of sex and sexuality. Let s take a look at some of the facts and hot tips around having fun without having to face some hectic consequences. If you are sexually active in South Africa today
Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini and one of his wives, Queen Mantfombi, have opened their hearts and purse strings to hundreds of Aids orphans and hungry children. Zwelithini s KwaKhangela palace, at Nongoma in northern KwaZulu-Natal, has become a second home to scores of impoverished children. The gesture has attracted t
Concerns about intellectual property rights were raised this week after two multinationals said they would allow local companies to copy their patented drugs. Nico Vermaak, a director at patent attorneys D M Kisch, says the landmark decision means that the value of patents could be eroded. GlaxoSmithKline (
A hitherto unknown woman, Hazel Tau, has emerged as the hero of this week s reluctant decision by multinational drugs giants GlaxoSmithKline and Boehringer Ingelheim to improve access to life-savings Aids drugs. It was a case of big business up against the disenfranchised and poor who cannot get access to expensive dru
An online dating agency has joined the battle against HIV/Aids by helping those infected with the virus to fight loneliness and rejection. The idea of a dating agency for HIV-positive people struck Ben Sassman after listening to two HIV-positive friends talk about how prospective dates would bolt as soon as they disclo
Andrew Bonsu was a star long before last weekend s 46664 concert, where the young preacher captured the audience s hearts with his fervent prayer. The 14-year-old, who comes from Ghana , had performed with U2 during a tour of the US last year. And Bonsu even has blue blood. His great-great-grandfather Nana Osei Bonsu w
Matthew Damane, 27, had a hard time when he started taking antiretroviral drugs two years ago, suffering dizziness, headaches, nausea and diarrhoea - but he didn t throw his tablets away. Every morning and evening, he was reminded by his girlfriend to take the life-saving drugs. Says Damane: Antiretrovirals have change
Survey: Pharmaceutical Industry The provision of antiretroviral drugs at affordable prices has been a complex and contentious issue, writes Nicholas Neveling Multinational pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers of generics have had to join forces to fight the HIV/Aids pandemic. Part of the challenge of providing an
Ten months ago, Edward Mabunda was at the front of a massive march to Parliament to demand Aids treatment. Last week, when the South African government unveiled its antiretroviral programme, Mabunda was no longer alive. Hopefully 2003 marks the last year of mounting deaths and conflict over Aids and the start of a comm
BMW South Africa knows all about setting new standards - in productivity and export volumes, for instance. But this is the record MD Ian Robertson holds particularly close to his heart: 85% of employees have undergone voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) for HIV. That uptake is higher than any figure recorded by any
Millions of people are in danger of being reduced to mere numbers unless we act He was surrounded by the world s hottest stars, but former President Nelson Mandela was once again in a league of his own. Despite the rarified presence in Cape Town s Greenpoint Stadium of singers Beyoncé Knowles, Anastacia, Bono, Peter G
South Africans are so concerned with HIV/Aids that they pay little attention to other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), according to the 2003 Durex Global Sex Survey. The online survey, which was released on Tuesday, polled nearly 4,000 South Africans on their sexual habits. The survey found 64 percent of South A
The government of the Western Cape is set to receive a contribution of up to $66.5 million from the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria over a period of five years, Western Cape Premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk announced today. Van Schalkwyk and Western Cape Minister for Health Piet Meyer made the a
SOUTH Africa moved to the forefront of the global race to find an Aids vaccine when it started its second human Aids vaccine trial this week. The country s first trial started last week and now South Africa joins the US, Britain, France and Switzerland in simultaneously testing
The Medical Research Council is appealing to Indians to volunteer for Aids vaccine trials which began this week. Dr Andrew Robinson, head of the MRC s HIV Vaccine Research Unit, said that recruitment efforts had so far resulted in responses mainly from the African and white communities. The first volunteer in Durban, M
SOCIAL Development Minister Zola Skweyiya this week granted permission for five orphans with Aids to receive antiretroviral treatment - despite the fact that the government is yet to approve a plan to supply the drugs in public hospitals and clinics. The minister s decision, which he took three days to make, will trans
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday November 2, 2003 - Health-e News Service
Kerry Cullinan - Health-e News Service
Despite much optimism, the training and resource shortcomings of rural hospitals and clinics may stymie antiretroviral roll-out, writes Kerry Cullinan People living with HIV/Aids around the country are anxiously waiting to see whether Cabinet will approve an operational plan to introduce antiretroviral drugs into the p
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday November 2, 2003
Claire Keeton
When Busisiwe Mohlabane found six orphans cooking by candlelight, destitute and alone a few weeks after their mother s death, she added their names to a list of more than 300 orphans in the informal settlement of Simunye, west of Joburg. And the experience deepened the 23-year-old loveLife volunteer s understanding of
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday October 26, 2003
Marjorie Copeland
For the past 10 years, Anne Leon has lived, loved and led a normal happy life with the world s most dreaded virus. I m HIV-positive and positive about HIV, says Leon, 38, of Umbilo, Durban. I m married, I overwork, I travel too much, go to Taebo classes, walk my dogs and I ve never had a day s illness since my diagnosi
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday October 26, 2003
Nashira Davids
When five-year-old Tholakele hears her name on television, she gets excited. But the little girl doesn t know that she has been at the centre of a legal row between her mother and a nursery school that refused to accept her because she is HIV-positive. The reason your name is on television is because they love you so m
TWO of South Africa s most prominent HIV/Aids campaigners, Patricia de Lille and Charlene Smith, are being sued for disclosing the status of three HIV-positive women, without their consent, in De Lille s self-titled biography. De Lille, leader of the Independent Democrats, and Smith, a well-known journalist, and New Af
NELSON Mandela s international Aids awareness concert will finally go ahead - on Saturday November 29 at Cape Town s Green Point Stadium. U2 frontman Bono, former Eurythmics member Dave Stewart, Queen guitarist Brian May and a host of other international stars, all of whom were to have appeared in February at the cance
WHEN the Treatment Action Campaign launched a defiance campaign in March this year, 32-year-old Kebareng Moeketsi was at the forefront of the first protest. Barely a week later Moeketsi, a volunteer HIV counsellor from Alexandra near Johannesburg, died of Aids, leaving behind two children. Accepting the Nelson Mandela
AN MPUMALANGA woman has won a court victory over the Health Professions Council, compelling it to investigate the doctor who failed to inform her of her HIV status during her pregnancy. Liesl Gerntholtz, the Aids Law Project lawyer who represented the woman, known as VRM, said the council had consistently demonstrated
THE Gauteng health department - which has made remarkable progress in expanding its HIV/Aids programmes - is gearing up to offer antiretroviral drugs to Aids patients as soon as Cabinet approves a national treatment plan. The health director responsible for the implementation of the plan in Gauteng, Dr Nomonde Xundu, s
Soweto study reveals new vaccine has proved hugely successful in combating the contraction of pneumonia and meningitis MANY of the babies with their heads shrouded by oxygen boxes in the children s ward of Chris Hani Baragwanath would not have been there - if they had been given a new pneumonia vaccine . The vaccine, w
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - September 28, 2003 - Health-e News Service
Kerry Cullinan, Health-e News Service
Fighting Aids with drugs will change millions of South Africans lives, but failure could be devastating, writes Kerry Cullinan For the past six weeks, health officials and specialist advisers have been burning the midnight oil to meet Tuesday s deadline, set by the Cabinet, for a detailed operational plan for an antire
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday September 28, 2003
Claire Keeton
Some provinces are ready to provide antiretroviral treatment as soon as a national plan is accepted by the Cabinet, provincial representatives said this week. Dr Anthony Mbewu, the chairman of a task team appointed to draw up the detailed plan - assisted by international experts - said the plan would be ready by Tuesda
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday September 21, 2003
Nashira Davids and Sphiwe Maphumulo
An Mpumalanga woman is suing her doctor because he failed to warn her that she had tested positive for HIV during her pregnancy. The Nelspruit woman is also taking on the Health Professions Council of South Africa after it ruled that her doctor s conduct was not improper or disgraceful . The woman, identified only
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday September 21, 2003
Claire Keeton
The world s richest man, Bill Gates, touched down in Mozambique - one of the world s poorest countries - this weekend to further his billion-dollar efforts to combat the ravages of malaria and HIV/Aids on the continent. Gates, the founder of Microsoft, has contributed more money than the US and European governments to
CLINICS in the rolling hills of Lusikisiki, in the Eastern Cape, are ready to provide Aids treatment if they get the go-ahead from the government. The preparations for treatment have sparked an upsurge in HIV testing among villagers. Doctors Without Borders - which set up a successful pilot treatment project in Khayeli
Provinces could be ready to treat Aids patients with antiretroviral drugs by November at some centres, South African Aids task team adviser Ira Magaziner said on Friday. The task team was appointed in August to develop a detailed plan to roll out antiretroviral treatment for the country. Clinton Foundation experts, inc
New evidence is emerging that Aids patients in Africa are more disciplined at following their pill regimens than Americans living with the disease - contradicting the perceptions and long-held prejudices that have affected the campaign to bring Aids drugs to millions in Africa. The New York Times reported this week tha
The director of loveLife, which receives R200-million a year from South African taxpayers and the Kaiser Foundation in the US to combat the HIV epidemic. Chris Barron asked him . . . How can we tell how effective loveLife has been? The only indicator must be a significant reduction in HIV. But that s a five-year time f
No health minister has been more controversial than Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, whose stance on HIV/Aids has led to many calls for her resignation. Yet she is sticking to her guns - and her star is rising in the ANC, writes S thembiso Msomi Throughout its history as a political entity, South Africa has never
Tembisa Classic Football Club soccer players have joined forces with the National Association of People Living with Aids (Napwa) to raise awareness of HIV/Aids. Napwa national director, Nkululeko Nxesi, said: The majority of infected or affected communities are black or African and soccer is their number one sport.
A visit by an American girl to South Africa will touch the lives of children here long after she has headed back home. Lola Carena Murray, 12, came to South Africa to hand over a $3 000 (R22 000) donation to the Nelson Mandela Children s Fund. Lola was born in Joburg, but moved to the US with her parents when she was s
When doctors James McIntyre and Glenda Gray started to test pregnant women for HIV in 1987, only three in 1 000 were HIV-positive. Today, three in 10 are HIV-positive. Now the pioneering pair, based at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, have won a prestigious award for HIV/Aids care. The International Association of Phys
Dolla Sapeta budgeted to spend no more than a month s salary of R4 000 on a simple but dignified funeral for his mother. But by the time she was buried in New Brighton township near Port Elizabeth, the 36-year-old artist and lecturer found himself deep in debt after spending over R16 000 - because of supposed tradition
AIDS activist Zackie Achmat s date with martyrdom is over - thanks to his new love and the government s change of heart. From tomorrow morning, the 41-year-old chairman of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) will start taking antiretroviral drugs for the first time since he was diagnosed HIV-positive 12 years ago, endi
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday August 24, 2003
Moshoeshoe Monare
Faced with a growing number of Aids orphans, a Pretoria school has come up with a model support scheme, writes Moshoeshoe Monare Khanyi Mothutsi is a bubbly, talkative and smart 15-year-old pupil at Bokgoni Technical High in Atteridgeville, outside Pretoria. Hi, I understand you are looking for me, she says, with a twa
ONLY a fraction of medical aid members who are HIV-positive in South Africa - an estimated one in 14 members - are making use of their HIV/Aids benefits, even though they are covered by the premiums they pay. By last year, about 22 500 members had enrolled for HIV/Aids programmes out of an estimated 450 000 infected b
The country has some bitter pills to swallow, says Ranjeni Munusamy If the hype following last week s Cabinet announcement that antiretroviral drugs are to be rolled out is anything to go by, four million HIV-positive people in this country should begin queueing at their local clinics to receive treatment. The reality
The process of rolling out anti-Aids drugs begins this week with the announcement of a team of international Aids specialists who will draw up a plan for countrywide distribution. The team, to be headed by the Medical Research Council s executive director for research, Dr Anthony Mbewu, will include experts assembled b
The cost of HIV/Aids to businesses ranges from 2% of payroll to as much as 25%, according to surveys conducted by HIV/Aids risk management company Lifeworks. This means that a business with an annual salary cost of R1-billion could be facing added expenses of R20-million to R250-million a year. This is due mostly to hi
Elaine Maane never dreamt that Aids would touch her life. She had it all: she was a wife and a mother, she had a good education and she was running her own fashion business. But then her whole world came crashing down and changed the course of her life - and those of scores of other woman. In 1997, Maane, now 32, and h
The Edenvale Care Centre has a fully equipped, 13-bed ward - but it remains empty because of a lack of funds. Joan Burrowes, a fundraiser for the centre, said they can t use the facility as there s no money. We have a facility that can be used to help Aids sufferers - but we cannot admit patients without funds to run t
Big business has a duty to help smaller firms set up health programmes, writes Clive Emdon In A country of nearly 12-million employees, the tremendous challenges business faces in dealing with the HIV/Aids epidemic are in the mining, transport and agricultural sectors - as well as in small, medium and micro-enterprises
The challenge facing big business s approach to HIV/Aids is that it needs to prioritise the health of workers in the real working environment - where people are ill and dying. This is the view of Warren Parker, director of the Centre for Aids Development, Research and Evaluation (Cadre). He says the issue of worker hea
A MULTINATIONAL company is using a HIV training tool to help people understand and face the AIDS epidemic. It also aims to help people living with HIV to overcome stigma, discrimination and prejudice. Bridges of Hope is a simple toolkit using a set of sticks to create bridges over which one steps to avoid laminated cro
The company s HIV/Aids testing and treatment programme is a global leader, writes Clive Emdon BMW South Africa has reached a record level of voluntary HIV/Aids testing and counselling in the past 16 months. According to the World Economic Forum s Global Health Initiative, it is the highest recorded level of voluntary t
Union federation Cosatu is to demand that business and the government work with it to facilitate the immediate roll-out of drugs to workers infected with HIV. The organisation said it was delighted with the government s decision to provide the drugs, but said it did not want any delays. Cosatu intended to take up a ran
Johncom is planning pragmatic moves to directly support those suffering because of HIV/Aids. The company, which owns the Sunday Times, is already involved in a number of HIV/Aids programmes. These include: Dissemination of up-to-date research and provision of training via the website AIDSinSite.co.za. Dissemination of
MORE than half the children admitted to South Africa s second-largest hospital are HIV- positive or have full-blown Aids. Professor Jerry Coovadia, a leading Aids expert who heads the HIV/Aids research unit at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine in Durban, said King Edward VIII Hospital had an HIV infection rate of
ON FRIDAY, the nation breathed a collective sigh of relief as the Cabinet instructed the Health Department to devise a detailed operational plan to provide antiretroviral drugs to those with Aids. It was a decision that was long in coming and the announcement was a little disingenuous in its claim that government share
CHILD activist Nkosi Johnson was the voice of the International Aids conference in 2000. At the first South African Aids conference this week, Prudence Mabele, 32, spoke up for people living with HIV/Aids. The vibrant Mabele made a potent case for treatment to be placed high on the conference agenda, revealing that spo
THE government has given Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang until the end of September to develop a detailed operational plan for rolling out antiretroviral drugs. In a statement released on Friday, after a day-long special Cabinet meeting on the issue, the government said it shares the impatience of many on the
Johannesburg: THE road to the government s about -turn on antiretroviral provision has been has been long and rocky. The government, lead chiefly by President Thabo Mbeki and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, has spent five years procrastinating over providing the life-saving drugs. It wavered between declaring
Jessica Bezuidenhout, S'thembiso Msomi And Claire Keeton
FORMER President Nelson Mandela joined millions around the country yesterday in welcoming the government s U-turn on rolling out antiretroviral drugs. Mandela - who had criticised the government for delaying providing the drugs - and his Nelson Mandela Foundation were overjoyed by the government s announcement, the org
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Wednesday August 06, 2003
Claire Keeton
The provision of antiretroviral treatment for South Africans with Aids -- a flashpoint at the South African Aids conference -- is accepted as the way forward although the speed at which the drugs will be made available in the public sector is not yet agreed, a top health official said Wednesday morning. There are no di
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Tuesday August 05, 2003
Claire Keeton
Treatment for people with HIV/Aids dominated the agenda again today of South Africa s first Aids conference in Durban, which is attended by delegates from more than 50 countries. Medical doctors, academics and people living with the disease made presentations on the efficacy of antiretroviral treatment and the need mak
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday July 27, 2003
Claire Keeton : Entebbe, Uganda
Every night after dinner, one of the world s top HIV vaccine researchers, Dr Pontiano Kaleebu of Uganda , leaves his family and returns to his laboratory to work until late. Kaleebu - like the Ugandan government - urgently wants to find a vaccine for HIV/Aids, which has infected about 1.5 million of his country s 26 mi
Time and ignorance are the real enemies - risks associated with the disease can be managed, writes Sean Jelley HIV/Aids is a risk of doing business in Southern Africa. The results of more than 120 independent surveys conducted throughout the region show that well over 18% of employees are already living with HIV/Aids.
FORMER US President Bill Clinton pleaded yesterday for the extension of drugs to treat HIV/Aids, saying this would be the best birthday present for Nelson Mandela. Delivering the inaugural Nelson Mandela lecture in Johannesburg yesterday, Clinton said Aids was a humanitarian crisis that had derailed economic developmen
AIDS treatment in Southern Africa is about to explode with seven countries in the region accelerating access to antiretroviral drugs. Very poor countries have shown they are capable of doing effective treatment in the public sector and that they would be ready to scale up rapidly, said the UN special envoy for HIV/Aids
Leader of the Treatment Action Campaign which leaked a secret government report on HIV/Aids this week. Before he left for the Aids conference in Paris Chris Barron asked him . . . What does the report say? It confirms that antiretrovirals work. What does Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang s failure to act on it s
Debilitating diseases such as HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria play a major role in perpetuating poverty in the developing world. However, healthcare resources and infrastructure are rarely adequate to address the needs of communities facing the challenges of these diseases. Pfizer has announced a major i
In the villages of the Sekhukhune district in Limpopo, Sekutu Monicca Mochadi is known in the community as an angel. She is a healthcare worker who cares for hundreds of people living with HIV/Aids. On Monday Mochadi s years of toil were recognised when she received the Khomanani Health Worker Excellence Award from the
The first generic antiretroviral drug that can be sold without its manufacturer being sued will be on the shelves in South Africa shortly. Aspen Pharmacare, the country s largest generics company, is awaiting finalisation on details from the Medicine Control Council for
A REVOLUTIONARY device which protects the identity of people taking HIV tests has been invented by a South African researcher. Designed by Kobus Herbst, deputy director of research operations at the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, based in Mtubatuba in KwaZulu-Natal, the HIV Confidant guarantees the pr
MEMBER of Parliament Patricia de Lille, leader of the newly formed Independent Democrats party, is raising an abandoned HIV-positive orphan as if the girl were her own. Also called Patricia, the seven-year-old has been in the care of Nazareth House, an Aids and children s charity in Gardens, Cape Town, that houses abou
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday June 29, 2003
Lesley Mofokeng
Gibson Kente s dream project is finally taking off. After he went public about being HIV-positive earlier this year, Kente started work on The Call, a story about living with HIV/Aids. The veteran stage personality is now looking for dancers, singers and actors. The show is to be staged at the State Theatre in Pretoria
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday June 29, 2003
Us President George W Bush outlined his vision for Africa ahead of his first trip to the continent in just over a week - with plans to deal with bloody civil wars, the threat of terrorism and the scourge of HIV/Aids. He also called for a new government in Zimbabwe . Among other initiatives, Bush has offered $100-millio
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday June 29, 2003
Claire Keeton
Human trials for an Aids vaccine raise a host of ethical issues, such as the abuse of volunteers and potential discrimination directed at them. The South African Aids Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI) has taken a number of steps to prevent problems in its upcoming trial. We have stressed the need to adhere to the highest ethi
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday June 29, 2003
Claire Keeton
In a sunny room in Soweto s Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, Stephan Zikalala, 39, meets other volunteers for the first human trial in South Africa for an HIV/Aids vaccine. These volunteers are all HIV-negative and have been meeting since March to prepare for the trial, which will last at least 12 months. They are
LAWRENCE Ndou is an unpretentious resident of Soweto. But he can lay claim to inspiring one of the world s biggest stars to campaign against Aids in Africa. Rock superstar Bono of the band U2 has cited the young HIV-positive man as his inspiration in his international campaign to fight the virus in Africa. Addressing
Zola Skweyiya, the Minister of Social Development, met business leaders on Friday evening to release the report of a summit held with the private sector in October last year. The report collates information from the two-day business summit, which dealt with private-public partnerships to counter socio-economic challeng
Rogers Naidoo, his wife, Theresa, and their two children are HIV-positive and living in abject poverty. To add to the family s woes, the eThekwini municipality recently threatened them with eviction if they did not settle their rental arrears. The Naidoos are among hundreds of families in Bayview, Chatsworth, who have
Eminent academic and medical researcher Prof Jerry Coovadia will receive an honorary doctorate from Wits University on June 24. Coovadia is the head of the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine s Centre for HIV/Aids in Durban. Wits vice-chancellor Loyiso Non- gxa will confer a Doctor of Science degree on Coovadia for di
Sindiwe Apie cried every night of the year she spent with her husband s family. They would not eat the food she made or let her touch their children and, when she decided to leave, her husband took his family s side. Apie is one of many HIV-positive people who faces rejection by their families - and who have found new
Children undergo HIV tests and parents fume after playground pin-pricking game rocks school. Three tiny notice-board pins have seen more than two dozen anguished parents faced with taking their children for HIV blood tests. Last week, a 13-year-old girl at Nico Malan High School, in Humansdorp, west of Port Elizabeth,
Thousands of South Africans are showing they pay more than lip service to alleviate poverty and distress by getting their employers to match their monthly donations to worthy causes that are working hard to make a difference. And employees are not stopping at these cash donations, made through the Charities Aid Foundat
Three years ago, 34-year-old Mozambican Jos‚ Mulungo Cossa died after an accident in a platinum mine near Rustenburg. But whether he died of his injuries or Aids is a question on which the Pretoria High Court will have to rule in a hearing starting on Tuesday, the start of a complicated legal battle with major implicat
One of South Africa s top radio deejays, Fana Khabzela Khaba, is battling HIV/Aids. The host of a daily show on Yfm announced on Friday that he had been diagnosed with the disease earlier this year. Khaba, 34, said he had been ill for a long time but his condition deteriorated so dramatically this week that he was bare
Andr‚ van Zijl s feet were so sore after 120 hours of nonstop waiting on tables that they felt as if they were burning. They feel like if they could detach themselves and run away, they would, said the 53-year-old HIV-positive Van Zijl, who is trying to set a world record to raise money for Hospice
South Africa has been accused of discrimination against HIV-positive employees. The International Labour Organisation s first global report on discrimination in the workplace lists this country as one of several where workers who are HIV-positive or diagnosed with Aids are often either dismissed or have their medical
Debbie Bradshaw urges government to finalise treatment plans HIV/Aids is the biggest single reason for premature mortality in South Africa . The results of new research - the first Burden of Disease (BOD) study undertaken by the SA Medical Research Council - reveals that HIV/Aids was responsible for about 39% of premat
When Canadian national Gary McNuit was taken to a township five years ago, he was so shocked at the extent of the poverty he saw that he decided to do something about it. McNuit was visiting family in Three Rivers, Vereeniging, in the Vaal Triangle. McNuit, a member of the Saltspring Organisation for Life Improvement a
A NEWLY married woman s joy at seeing her wedding picture in local newspapers turned to distress after the story mentioned that she was HIV-positive. Now Nontsikelelo Ntsie s husband, Lizwi Dudula, is threatening to leave her because she went public with her status. The couple from Bhongweni in Kokstad, southern KwaZul
Microsoft boss Bill Gates has granted $28-million (about R205-million) to a Southern African Aids initiative which will examine the effectiveness of latex diaphragms as a preventative measure for HIV/Aids and sexually transmitted diseases. The initiative is a joint effort by the South African Medical Research Council,
Tonight on Freedom Day thousands of South Africans throughout the world will have dinner with one thing in mind - to improve the plight of South African children who have been affected by HIV/Aids. These South Africans will be supporting the second Starfish 1000 Dinners of Hope. The initiative involves hosting a dinner
South African Aids activist Zackie Achmat and Congolese basketball star Dikembe Mutombo have been named as world heroes in a prestigious new list. The two are among 36 people from Europe, Africa and the Middle East, who are to be acknowledged in a special edition of TIME magazine next week. Achmat will be honoured for
THE government has delayed signing an agreement on a 41-million health grant because of technical complexities identified by the Treasury . The Health Department refused to sign the first-round agreement on the funding process with the UN Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The fund s executive directo
The founder of South Africa s multiracial gay movement was also an ANC struggle hero. A new play tells his story, reports Andrew Worsdale He was an ANC struggle hero and a treason trialist. He was also the founder of South Africa s multiracial gay movement, and an Aids activist. Now the life of the late Simon Tseko Nko
It is difficult to understand how the Sunday Times can publish two articles that directly contradict each other on the same page. The article HIV concoction slammed as toxic (March 30) argues that African potato is not good for people with HIV and Aids, while Diet makes a difference brings our attention to a
International organisations will be mobilised in the next month to protest globally against the South African government s stance on HIV/Aids treatment - if there is no progress. If the government refuses to meet the Treatment Action Campaign s demand for a comprehensive HIV/Aids treatment plan with time frames, this w
The Medical Research Council has identified five South African plants, used as traditional medicine, that could help those suffering from HIV/Aids. Anthony Mbewu, executive director for the council, said his team of doctors, professors, researchers and traditional healers were conducting research into these plants and
A field test of the anti-Aids diet in a Lesotho hospital appears to have got 19 out of 20 patients with full-blown Aids back on their feet in two weeks. But despite the apparent success of the diet, its creator, South African-born Aids counsellor Tine van der Maas, said it is not a substitute for antiretroviral drugs,
PRESCRIBING the African potato to Aids patients is dangerous because it suppresses the immune system in the long term, a scientist said this week. The vegetable is part of a concoction that Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said last week was the recommended food combination to boost the immune systems of people
Former Department of Health Director-General, Olive Shisana, has entered the row over Finance Minister Trevor Manuel s remarks on HIV/Aids treatment. In an open letter to Manuel , Shisana, who now works for the Human Sciences Research Council in the area of HIV/Aids, said treatment should be left to health professional
For poor people in South Africa , one of the most important promises of the Constitution is that everyone has the right of access to healthcare services . Unfortunately, in reality this right is one of the most elusive. Some might say, given the dreadful state of many public health services, that in fact it is a right
Lillian Manuel lies on a mattress in a tiny room praying for a new lease of life. Manuel, 37, from Wentworth, Durban, has full-blown Aids. The mother of a 21-year-old son now has one remaining wish: that someone takes care of her darling when she dies. Manuel lives in the small room with her sisters, Magdeline, who als
HIV/Aids has become the leading cause of death among pregnant women, surpassing high blood pressure complications, a report released on Friday by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang disclosed. The report, called Saving Mothers 1999-2001, was commissioned by the health ministry four years ago because of growing con
CONTROVERSIAL US Aids dissident Roberto Giraldo has been invited to South Africa by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to act as an adviser to the government. Giraldo, a member of President Thabo Mbeki s Aids advisory panel, believes Aids is caused by nutritional deficiencies, not HIV. He also argues that antiret
The biggest cause of death in Cape Town by 2009 will be Aids, predicts a new study, warning of how this will erode the economy Life for many Capetonians is expected to end at 40. By 2009 the life expectancy of black people living in Cape Town will plummet to 40 years - from an expectancy of 55 - an alarming study done
A novel South African project, which allows HIV-positive mothers to breast-feed their babies without passing on the deadly virus, is to be rolled out around the world. The Pretoria Pasteurisation method, which was developed at the Kalafong Hospital in Atteridgeville , is set to be implemented in
State and Cosatu in meetings to resolve stalemate TRADE union federation Cosatu and the government are engaged in a behind-the- scenes process to rescue a proposed national HIV/Aids treatment and prevention plan from collapse. Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi met Deputy President Jacob Zuma and Health Minister
THE executive management committee of the National Economic Development and Labour Council is to meet on Friday to reopen discussions on the national treatment plan for HIV/Aids. The council s executive director, Phillip Dexter, said he was waiting for state and business negotiators, who had to consult their principals
A UNITED Nations special HIV/Aids envoy, who was the subject of a bizarre attack by three South African ministers this week, says he is bewildered at being branded a fascist and arrogant but does not want a brawl with the government. Steven Lewis, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan s special envoy to Southern Africa, told
They come from all over the East Rand to his small surgery in the busy Golden Walk Shopping Centre in Germiston. They suffer from many ailments, from common colds and shingles to cancer and TB. Some come with sores in their mouth - so painful they are unable to eat. Most suffer from HIV/Aids-related diseases. They c
Paul Roux has given 56 children a doctor s ultimate gift - the hope of a longer life. Roux, the head of Groote Schuur Hospital s paediatric HIV/Aids service, has become a lifeline to the HIV-positive orphans of Nazareth House. Established as a Catholic convent in 1880, Nazareth House cares for elderly people and also l
THE furore over the use by the Treatment Action Campaign of a picture of Nelson Mandela, wearing their T-shirt, to publicise Friday s march on Parliament raises a more fundamental question about how his name is used and abused. Mandela is this country s single- most respected icon. Africa has not had such a representat
Mpumalanga health MEC wastes taxpayers money by trying to evict - again - a group that dispenses Aids drugs at provincial hospitals MPUMALANGA s controversial health minister, Sibongile Manana, has tried once again to evict the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project from two of the province s hospitals. Manana wen
During his first month of antiretroviral treatment Dumisani*, the first mineworker at AngloGold to take the free drugs to treat Aids, did not stop working underground. Now, Dumisani is positive about his future for the first time since he tested HIV-positive. When the doctor diagnosed me with the virus, I felt very hur
A KWAZULU-Natal Aids charity has been excluded from the list of recipients of the R1.8-billion grant from the United Nations Global Aids Fund - for the second time. In May last year, the Enhancing Care Initiative was prevented from receiving R712-million of the R1.8-billion grant after Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-
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